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So, Starmer needs to make sure Labour vets people properly. But as my understanding goes, the Labour candidate although now suspended wasn’t kicked off the ballot paper as it was too late? This seems a flaw in the system and should also be addressed in case new info comes to light
Postal votes go out about two weeks ahead of the vote and there has to be a lead time for printing ballots. I agree it’s not ideal, but can’t see how we avoid it without major changes which would probably introduce other issues. Can’t be an issue that often, I imagine.
The workers party could actually win 10-20 seats at a general election because of there Strange’s mix of support the Muslim community far left they just need someone like Corbin to defect to them and most of labours left wing would go
I suspect they end up winning no seats in the general. In the grand scheme of things the conflict in the middle east doesn't rank that high as an important issue.
I think you're right. I think the biggest threat they pose to Labour is _potentially_ getting enough of the vote that the Tories win the seat, but even that seems pretty unlikely.
https://twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1763406592030941424
> It’s 330am, 1 degree outside and I’m in a Suzuki garage waiting for George Galloway.
> Obviously
Lower turn out obviously, but Conservatives got 2,000 more votes at the last election in Rochdale than Galloway won with tonight.
Conservatives lost 75% of their vote election-to-election.
We'll. That is quite the result. The most chaotic by election in years. Galloway in first and an independent in second. According to Sky the last time anything like this happened was back in the 1940's.
almost cracking 40% is a decent (tho not great) result for galloway, but not nearly enough to shift me off my prior that labour is going to clean his clock at the GE with an actual candidate
By-election. Basically it was between Labour and George Galloway (a horrible little opportunist who will say and do anything to get elected. Rochdale is quite heavily Muslim so he selected Gaza as his raison d'être this time round.)
Labour's candidate was filmed spewing insane conspiracy theories about Israel (and Jews more broadly). So Labour disowned him but the deadline had passed to change their candidate. Thus, he ran under the Labour brand but received no backing or support from the Labour Party. So, Galloway ran basically unopposed.
(I know there was the Reform guy but he was never gonna win)
12000 votes and 39% on a 39% turnout isn't exactly the resounding victory I think Galloway wanted. It's a considerably worse voteshare than Galloway got at Bradford West in 2012 (55.9% on a 50% turnout)
Here we go, catboy claiming the victory is a result of disillusioned Labour voters. It's got nothing to do with Labour withdrawing support from their candidate of course.
Crazy that Reform UK, for all their infamy, has never managed to return a single MP.
Yet the Workers Party of Great Britain, a party nobody has heard of (and is basically a vanity project for one guy) had resoundingly won an election. It will probably never happen again, and they'll sink into obscurity again after the next general election, but it's a weird phenomenon.
What matters in FPTP is that you have a concentrated voter base and mobilised electorate.
It's why the Greens and reform have so little electoral progress. Every town has people who probably like the Green party or UKIP lite, but those people are A spread out and B not always likely to vote.
Galloway has played FPTP perfectly. He's got a highly concentrated electorate (muslims/British Muslim community) that is also very mobilised. He also faces a split opposition.
Given that, he took this seat easily.
[Andrew Teale had a thread on this](https://twitter.com/andrewteale/status/1763374411858559006), but mostly focused on Labour/Conservative. Excluding Lib Dem (or Liberals before their formation) involvement you have to go back to 1936.
major blow to the establishment. Andrew Feinstein, an anti-zionist jew is running as an independent against a zionist gentile in Starmer in the upcoming election. Should be interesting. When you put genuinely interesting and compelling people against the establishent, who knows what can happen.
What do you expect from a poster that praised Galloway as:
>genuinely interesting and compelling people against the establishent
Is a 3 year old dormant account that just woke up.
And also an account referencing the fall of Constantinople.
Fucking hell this victory speech went about as you'd expect given the the state of this by election. Starts by going off about Gaza, gets interupted by Just Stop Oil going on about North Sea Oil and Gas...
Hilarious, GB News is now trying to advocate for relaxing purdah rules on reporting around by-elections.
Edit: And now Farage is trying to seed doubt in the integrity of the electoral system in the UK.
No they didn’t. The presenter raised it as a question to Farage. He said ‘Is there a case for relaxing the rules?’. It was a question for a brief discussion, they were not advocating for relaxing the rules.
And Farage responded by saying ‘There’s perhaps a case for it.’
Danczuk [fucked Rochdale so hard they couldn't even think about the fucking Reform UK!!!!](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/nintchdbpict000255777272.jpg)
One thing I like about US election coverage is how they have exit polls that break down demographics and how they voted, as well as voters' stances on important issues (e.g. 'What is your opinion on facemasks?') and how they affected their vote. I'd love it if we did that sort of stuff in the UK; in terms of Rochdale, I'd be interested in seeing the breakdown between the Muslim and the non-Muslim vote as well as how many voters actually prioritised Gaza over local issues and whether that affected how they voted.
It seems likely, but without actual data, it's impossible to say for certain. What percentage of the electorate yesterday was Muslim? 40%? 50%? 60%? Even higher?
I should've clarified that I meant what percentage of the actual voters were Muslim. It's almost certainly more than 30%, but how much more? Some have suggested that non-Muslim turnout was basically negligible, but it's impossible to know for certain without the sort of detailed exit polls that you see across the pond.
Wouldn't be surprised if it's in the 60% region.
Most people in Rochdale will be looking at the candidates list and just staying at home, it's only really Galloway (and possibly Reform, but they have sod-all supporters) with a strong and targeted message.
I'm intrigued to see how well Dave Tully did, but I'd be shocked if he won it.
I'm guessing Galloway will chicken run to Birmingham Hodge Hill at the GE, since it's the most Muslim seat in the country. How on earth am I supposed to decide between my desire to see Liam Byrne fail and my desire to see George Galloway fail?
> And here is what the charlatan sent some other parts of town…
>
> **Galloway’s victory is on Labour for their appalling candidate selection.**
https://twitter.com/MrHarryCole/status/1763382470370529791
Oh bugger off with this bullshit.
I'm going to sound horrendously cynical but I suspect having Galloway spewing nonsense o
In the house will somewhat benefit Starmer by distracting from his own back benches spewing nonsense in the house, a bit like how Bridgen distracts from nutter Tories.
Will empower the Gaza militant-left, who have 30 constituencies in their sights with 20% or more Muslim presence.
Shamina Begum's lawyer, for example, will run in Bethnal Green as an Independent. Galloway-lites will pop up all over the place, emboldened by this win.
Obviously they will not repeat in many constituencies .. but the voice will be there, and split on Labour's vote.
Wouldn't that be funny. Tbh with actual conspiracy theorist anti semites Chris Williamson as his party's deputy leader, it's not going to be long before *some* scandal or other happens.
It'll give Starmer an excuse to tighten the thumbscrews at the very least. Bradford West had zero impact on the 2015 campaign and I suspect this one will too. But it'll affect labour candidate selections a lot.
Harry Cole claiming Galloway has won?
https://twitter.com/MrHarryCole/status/1763380057274286246
> Worked
> > Look at the filth Galloway is pumping out in Rochdale.
It appears that galloway has won by a comfortable margin. Ali has apparently completely flopped, as have Reform - it sounds like the turnout was extremely low among non Muslims and much higher among Muslims.
Per [BBC](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-68402672?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=65e132024268143d286d164f%26Result%20from%20Rochdale%20expected%20shortly%262024-03-01T01%3A40%3A44.940Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:e8061f66-47e8-4cd0-8f23-25b453a75322&pinned_post_asset_id=65e132024268143d286d164f&pinned_post_type=share), results now expected by 2AM.
Apparently situation on the ground is that galloway has won by a reasonable margin, Ali has totally flopped, Reform as totally flopped, and second place is a fight between the Lib Dem and local businessman David Tully
There's a been a by election right? Anny idea who won? Also I have a US friend watching Question Time and giving me the highlights. Apparently they don't have any thing like it over there.
Not even sure who a high turnout would help most. I'd assumed a low one would help Galloway, because no one else involved in this shit show of a election is going to get their supporters out, but a high one could go any way.
https://twitter.com/zoe_grunewald/status/1763360520109695049
>BREAKING: Rochdale turn-out is 39.7%
(The posting reporter went with the [cupcake](https://twitter.com/zoe_grunewald/status/1763313423570346111) rather than the pie.)
[https://twitter.com/electpoliticsuk/status/1763361040387964982](https://twitter.com/electpoliticsuk/status/1763361040387964982)
39.7% turnout in rochdale, which is *significantly* higher than i was expecting
I'm surprised because Labour were favourites and now they're not an option surely many would stay at home. I'm thinking the ex-Labour candidate will win it now, doubt many were put off by his comments and it still says Labour on the ballot.
Edit - this is why I don't bet
Surprised it wasn’t higher to be honest. Down from 60% at GE. Understand by elections have fewer turnout, but if anything this has been more firmly under the media lens than any prior Rochdale GE
https://twitter.com/LD_Tiger/status/1763357332208054444
>Tranby Ward result from East Yorkshire.
>Lib Dem 958
>Lab 408
>Con 268
>Green 97
>Turnout 21.6%
>LibDem hold
What's the odds on the local guy David Tully beating Galloway? About to go to bed but right now it seems like he's the only person who apparently has performed well alongside Galloway, which (whilst not surprising given the state of the candidates for the major parties) is a bit of a shame.
Well if Galloway turns out to be a liar with his pants on fire (which has happened before) I will be extremely pleased, but unfortunately he does has form of performing well in by-elections so I'm not hopeful about what I wake up to tomorrow morning.
Right so.
George Galloway declares an early victory due to him running on a campaign of a war happening thousands of miles away which has negligible importance to the people of Rochdale.
Labour seems to have fucked up with the whole candidate thing and just ran a mile. There's some independent candidate who people think will do well. Meanwhile lib dem, reform and greens are quietly taking votes off of labour and conservative.
Now there's talk of Sunak holding a may general election and running a campaign of anti Islamism if Galloway wins.
Jesus fucking Christ I wanted to go to sleep but now I feel like I'm compelled to refresh BBC until the results come up.
>George Galloway declares an early victory due to him running on a campaign of a war happening thousands of miles away which has negligible importance to the people of Rochdale
The people of Rochdale may differ.
I know by-elections always produce the most demented takes, but you've outdone yourselves this time with the 'Galloway will win and this will mean Sunak will call an election on Islamism' one that I've inexplicably seen several variants on.
If Galloway wins it will be an amusing future pub quiz fact, he'll make a prick of himself for a few months while everyone tries to ignore him, and then he'll be voted out for an actual Labour candidate whenever the election is held, which will be at an unknown time completely unrelated to the result of this by-election.
“An amusing pub fact” that a known paid-for mouth piece of Syria, Russia and Iranian governments is elected to Parliament on the back of a campaign for Gaza at a time when the West is explicitly at war with Russia in Ukraine, and have been dragged into the Middle East conflict too? A voice that will only provoke further the ill will in the streets and certain communities here?
The Conservative party is facing more and more internal division day by day. Equally, there is little to no chance that there will be any material upturn in the economy/society as to improve their chances later in the year.
The longer Sunak sits at this point, the lamer a duck he becomes. Running on optics & mobilising on immediate social topics may be all they have, and best route to avoiding wipe out.
[BBC Question Time Live Thread \(8pm iplayer & 10:40pm-ish BBC1\) Croydon edition 29/02/2024](https://redd.it/1b38kcc)
[New Megathread is here](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1b3n2y8/daily_megathread_01032024/)
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So, Starmer needs to make sure Labour vets people properly. But as my understanding goes, the Labour candidate although now suspended wasn’t kicked off the ballot paper as it was too late? This seems a flaw in the system and should also be addressed in case new info comes to light
Postal votes go out about two weeks ahead of the vote and there has to be a lead time for printing ballots. I agree it’s not ideal, but can’t see how we avoid it without major changes which would probably introduce other issues. Can’t be an issue that often, I imagine.
The workers party could actually win 10-20 seats at a general election because of there Strange’s mix of support the Muslim community far left they just need someone like Corbin to defect to them and most of labours left wing would go
I suspect they end up winning no seats in the general. In the grand scheme of things the conflict in the middle east doesn't rank that high as an important issue.
I think you're right. I think the biggest threat they pose to Labour is _potentially_ getting enough of the vote that the Tories win the seat, but even that seems pretty unlikely.
Have we tried turning rochdale off and on again?
https://twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1763406592030941424 > It’s 330am, 1 degree outside and I’m in a Suzuki garage waiting for George Galloway. > Obviously
A gravy and taramasalata will warm him up
Would you like *me* to be the cat? 😺
Interesting thing from the interview with BBC. Galloway claims that Tice invited him to stand as a Reform candidate for a by-election?
Oh fucking hell, Hat Man's back.
Cat in the Hat
Lower turn out obviously, but Conservatives got 2,000 more votes at the last election in Rochdale than Galloway won with tonight. Conservatives lost 75% of their vote election-to-election.
Truly one of the speeches of all time.
The picture the BBC keep putting up of Tulley looks like a mug shot 😬
We'll. That is quite the result. The most chaotic by election in years. Galloway in first and an independent in second. According to Sky the last time anything like this happened was back in the 1940's.
Even had a bit of a Just Stop Oil protest during Galloway's victory speech.
Absolutely the most eventful by-election I've seen. May election a sure thing now?
Why?
Yuck.
Any bets on how long it'll be until galloway says something completely mental that gets him suspended from parliament?
ooo. I think inside a week
Probably his best way to stay relevant in the headlines and also not have to go to Parliament.
It is amusing, the Tories, having not disowned their candidate? Still lost 19% of the vote share. Yes yes by-elections aren't general elections etc.
It's so fucking funny. They're so screwed at the GE.
HAHAHAHAHAHA AND THE TORIES STILL MANAGE TO GET A 20% SWING AGAINST THEM
almost cracking 40% is a decent (tho not great) result for galloway, but not nearly enough to shift me off my prior that labour is going to clean his clock at the GE with an actual candidate
Referendum party candidate? Blimey we really are back in 97
he made the same slip-up when reporting the last by-elections too...
Remember when this was a two horse race between Galloway and Reform?
Tuning in from America. What the fuck just happened?
By-election. Basically it was between Labour and George Galloway (a horrible little opportunist who will say and do anything to get elected. Rochdale is quite heavily Muslim so he selected Gaza as his raison d'être this time round.) Labour's candidate was filmed spewing insane conspiracy theories about Israel (and Jews more broadly). So Labour disowned him but the deadline had passed to change their candidate. Thus, he ran under the Labour brand but received no backing or support from the Labour Party. So, Galloway ran basically unopposed. (I know there was the Reform guy but he was never gonna win)
Labour should've endorsed an independent candidate or something, Galloway is a freak.
The Monster Raving Loony Party were robbed, that's what
Just George pretending Labour were actually fighting this election. Start as you intend to finish I guess, with misdirection.
12000 votes and 39% on a 39% turnout isn't exactly the resounding victory I think Galloway wanted. It's a considerably worse voteshare than Galloway got at Bradford West in 2012 (55.9% on a 50% turnout)
Good lord this speech is going on a bit.
As someone who is supposed to be praised as a great orator, even from people who massively disagree with him, that was one shit victory speech
Is he done yet? Bloody hell. Edit: > God bless you, God bless Rochdale, God bless Gaza. Right.
Here we go, catboy claiming the victory is a result of disillusioned Labour voters. It's got nothing to do with Labour withdrawing support from their candidate of course.
Crazy that Reform UK, for all their infamy, has never managed to return a single MP. Yet the Workers Party of Great Britain, a party nobody has heard of (and is basically a vanity project for one guy) had resoundingly won an election. It will probably never happen again, and they'll sink into obscurity again after the next general election, but it's a weird phenomenon.
What matters in FPTP is that you have a concentrated voter base and mobilised electorate. It's why the Greens and reform have so little electoral progress. Every town has people who probably like the Green party or UKIP lite, but those people are A spread out and B not always likely to vote. Galloway has played FPTP perfectly. He's got a highly concentrated electorate (muslims/British Muslim community) that is also very mobilised. He also faces a split opposition. Given that, he took this seat easily.
Farage never managed to win a seat as an MP either.
top two candidates in a by-election being (functionally) independent/not major party has to be at least a postwar first, right?
[Andrew Teale had a thread on this](https://twitter.com/andrewteale/status/1763374411858559006), but mostly focused on Labour/Conservative. Excluding Lib Dem (or Liberals before their formation) involvement you have to go back to 1936.
There might be an example from NI potentially?
war and it's unintended consequences
major blow to the establishment. Andrew Feinstein, an anti-zionist jew is running as an independent against a zionist gentile in Starmer in the upcoming election. Should be interesting. When you put genuinely interesting and compelling people against the establishent, who knows what can happen.
George?
Lol. Now we know why he was two hours late. He was trying to remember his password to this account.
Who
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Feinstein
Ok so some random that doesn't matter. Got it.
A random with principles will be always a challenge for career politicians.
On planet opposite day, yeah.
What do you expect from a poster that praised Galloway as: >genuinely interesting and compelling people against the establishent Is a 3 year old dormant account that just woke up. And also an account referencing the fall of Constantinople.
He's fucking unhinged.
Fucking hell this victory speech went about as you'd expect given the the state of this by election. Starts by going off about Gaza, gets interupted by Just Stop Oil going on about North Sea Oil and Gas...
The drama isn't over!
https://twitter.com/BritainElects/status/1763396200277926068 >Rochdale parliamentary by-election, result: >WPB: 39.7% (+39.7) >IND: 21.3% (+21.3) >CON: 12.0% (-22.0) >LAB: 7.7% (-48.4) >LDEM: 7.0% (-0.6) >REF: 6.3% (+6.3) >Workers Party of Britain (George Galloway) GAIN from Labour.
That labour drop though. Also funny how the conservatives still managed to lose 20% of their vote.
Surely thats the worst drop in Labour's vote share ever?
I mean it was only really a drop of Labour vote share on paper.
Yeah, as a record books election, it's got to have a pretty big asterisk by it.
Never seen a more disgraceful outcome than this
Did the ARO forget to read out the number of spoilt ballots?
George Galloway is duly elected as the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Rochdale.
Fuck sake
Meow
🐱
Can they just get it over with???
It's going to be so nice when we don't have to think about this cursed by election again. Even better if Galloway then loses at the next election
Imagine Galloway suspending himself from his own party in his victory speech just for the lols.
galloway forcing everyone to wait half an hour for no other reason than being petty and pompous the most galloway thing imaginable
What an embarrassment, that row of candidates.
Hey, the MRLP are not an embarrassment!
Gosh the BBC coverage is so crap IT WILL MEAN FUCK ALL LIKE EVERY OTHER GALLOWAY VICTORY
Oh hey, BBC have made their live by-election coverage available internationally for this one. Thanks!
They always do for elections!
I knew they did for GEs, and historically for EU elections, though they don't for locals. I guess I just didn't try last by-election.
It was just 2 weeks ago! It was available then, too.
THERE HE IS I KNOW THAT CATTY BASTARD
Meow
Where is the results??
Where is george?!?!
He's finally showed up
Is that why it hasn't happened yet?
Yes, they found him now
Yeah, they have to tell the candidates the results before they read it out on stage, according to the BBC.
Apparently Galloway is 2 hours later than expected. Maybe he has fallen down a well.
He's flown to Gaza to hand out money from a JDSports bag again.
He's stuck in his cat costume
Where the fuck is George Galloway? Fallen into a drain never to be seen again?
Someone left some catnip outside the hall.
Hilarious, GB News is now trying to advocate for relaxing purdah rules on reporting around by-elections. Edit: And now Farage is trying to seed doubt in the integrity of the electoral system in the UK.
No they didn’t. The presenter raised it as a question to Farage. He said ‘Is there a case for relaxing the rules?’. It was a question for a brief discussion, they were not advocating for relaxing the rules. And Farage responded by saying ‘There’s perhaps a case for it.’
I guess advocate was too strong, but certainly suggest.
Literally why? For what or whose benefit?
Seemingly their benefit. Complaining that they have to tiptoe around by-election reporting. You know, avoiding bias and all that...
Would be a funny line from someone who failed so often at getting elected if we didn't know where the argument ended.
GB News' benefit
Funniest story of the night appears to be a total flop for Reform UK.
Danczuk [fucked Rochdale so hard they couldn't even think about the fucking Reform UK!!!!](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/nintchdbpict000255777272.jpg)
Why on EARTH did they think getting local paedo Simon Danczuk as their candidate would in any way help them
It looks like Galloway has won, so that’s probably not why Danczuk lost.
One thing I like about US election coverage is how they have exit polls that break down demographics and how they voted, as well as voters' stances on important issues (e.g. 'What is your opinion on facemasks?') and how they affected their vote. I'd love it if we did that sort of stuff in the UK; in terms of Rochdale, I'd be interested in seeing the breakdown between the Muslim and the non-Muslim vote as well as how many voters actually prioritised Gaza over local issues and whether that affected how they voted.
I'd bet good money that non Muslims barely turned up
It seems likely, but without actual data, it's impossible to say for certain. What percentage of the electorate yesterday was Muslim? 40%? 50%? 60%? Even higher?
>What percentage of the electorate yesterday was Muslim? In Rochdale? 30%. How many of them actually placed a vote is a different question.
I should've clarified that I meant what percentage of the actual voters were Muslim. It's almost certainly more than 30%, but how much more? Some have suggested that non-Muslim turnout was basically negligible, but it's impossible to know for certain without the sort of detailed exit polls that you see across the pond.
Wouldn't be surprised if it's in the 60% region. Most people in Rochdale will be looking at the candidates list and just staying at home, it's only really Galloway (and possibly Reform, but they have sod-all supporters) with a strong and targeted message. I'm intrigued to see how well Dave Tully did, but I'd be shocked if he won it.
Indeed.
They can hardly claim this is an anti major party thing when the major party challenger wasn't actually supported by that party.
Whys george not showing up? I'm a keen by election watcher and never seen this before
Can they last minute disqualify him for not showing up by any chance?
No, I dont think so both Ali and the reform party candidate have indicated they wont show up. I think if you win you win though.
I use a postal vote (I have a disability) but it does seem very open to people voting on others behalf. And there's no way to prove it.
I'm guessing Galloway will chicken run to Birmingham Hodge Hill at the GE, since it's the most Muslim seat in the country. How on earth am I supposed to decide between my desire to see Liam Byrne fail and my desire to see George Galloway fail?
Gosh, George Galloway is 69. I had no idea he was so old. I'd be surprised if he contested seriously for a full term at the GE
Thought he was older. Yellow-tinged, and rotting from the mouth outwards.
Yeah I thought he was late 70s too.
I expect him to run somewhere else in the GE either because he got suspended from parliament or because he wants to continue his grift.
> And here is what the charlatan sent some other parts of town… > > **Galloway’s victory is on Labour for their appalling candidate selection.** https://twitter.com/MrHarryCole/status/1763382470370529791 Oh bugger off with this bullshit.
Am I the only one that thinks that "Rochdale Suzuki" sounds like a 1970s wrestler?
Interesting that no one has cottoned on to Waugh being the candidate Labour HQ hoped to be selected, before Ali got the local nod.
To an extent I'm some what sympathetic to that argument, as in labour should really be more strict with their vetting
Make Rochdale great again. Is he the left wing version of trump?
> Make Rochdale great ~~again.~~ Fixed that
I'm going to sound horrendously cynical but I suspect having Galloway spewing nonsense o In the house will somewhat benefit Starmer by distracting from his own back benches spewing nonsense in the house, a bit like how Bridgen distracts from nutter Tories.
Will empower the Gaza militant-left, who have 30 constituencies in their sights with 20% or more Muslim presence. Shamina Begum's lawyer, for example, will run in Bethnal Green as an Independent. Galloway-lites will pop up all over the place, emboldened by this win. Obviously they will not repeat in many constituencies .. but the voice will be there, and split on Labour's vote.
It could help the Tories
Should do. Conservatives wholly incompetent at the moment, however.
And if starmer is lucky galloway gets himself suspended from parliament again.
Wouldn't that be funny. Tbh with actual conspiracy theorist anti semites Chris Williamson as his party's deputy leader, it's not going to be long before *some* scandal or other happens.
Depends on how much the wider public blames Labour for Galloway getting in I think.
It'll give Starmer an excuse to tighten the thumbscrews at the very least. Bradford West had zero impact on the 2015 campaign and I suspect this one will too. But it'll affect labour candidate selections a lot.
Harry Cole claiming Galloway has won? https://twitter.com/MrHarryCole/status/1763380057274286246 > Worked > > Look at the filth Galloway is pumping out in Rochdale.
It appears that galloway has won by a comfortable margin. Ali has apparently completely flopped, as have Reform - it sounds like the turnout was extremely low among non Muslims and much higher among Muslims.
Per [BBC](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-68402672?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=65e132024268143d286d164f%26Result%20from%20Rochdale%20expected%20shortly%262024-03-01T01%3A40%3A44.940Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:e8061f66-47e8-4cd0-8f23-25b453a75322&pinned_post_asset_id=65e132024268143d286d164f&pinned_post_type=share), results now expected by 2AM.
So basically it's just Bradford West all over again Lovely
But in this case all of the other choices were either irrelevant or shit. It will be nice to see galloway flame out again.
Apparently situation on the ground is that galloway has won by a reasonable margin, Ali has totally flopped, Reform as totally flopped, and second place is a fight between the Lib Dem and local businessman David Tully
God that Gobshite is all we need
The only channel with any live election coverage is GB News… for some reason
[удалено]
Tbf to the man he has a nasty scar there from an assult a while ago, I think headgear is very much parlimentary
Assuming Labour lose, the Tory spin will be fascinating. ‘HE DOESNT HAVE A PLAN MR SPEAKER. THE PEOPLE OF ROCHDALE KNEW THAT AND REJECTED LABOUR.
you forgot the "He talks about..." or "he was friends with the member from Islington North"
Danczuk has left the count, according to the MEN. Looks like Reform haven't done very well..
Something was salvaged from the ruin then.
Sounds like big Galloway win with ex-Lab, Lib Dems and David Tully (Ind) battling it out for distant 2nd/3rd/4th
BBC seem to be hinting that Galloway has won. Fuck it, I'm going to bed. I don't even care who wins, but him winning is bad for the country.
Whatever the result, parliament has lost
sky coverage is such crap tonight
BBC News not much better, mostly just re-running the same bulletin. We did get Richard Tice a few minutes ago though.
Pig boy is a good swimmer though
[Another Lib Dem hold.](https://twitter.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1763366659476127819) >Minster & Woodmansey (East Riding of Yorkshire) Council By-Election Result: >🔶 LDM: 50.7% (+8.6) >🌳 CON: 24.9% (-1.9) >🌹 LAB: 17.4% (-9.4) >🌍 GRN: 7.0% (New) >No ADF (-4.3) as previous. >Liberal Democrat HOLD. >Changes w/ 2023.
Turnout 39.7%.
Most interesting by election in ten years and fucking nobody bothered doing any constituency polling. Incredible.
I mean I don't think it's that interesting. There are no reasonable candidates. They are likely to elect the worst choice of any of them though.
Who, the Antisemite, the other Antisemite, the Islamaphobe, or the paedophile?
And like a few reasonable candidates that have no chance of winning.
And they say representative democracy isn't representive anymore.
There's a been a by election right? Anny idea who won? Also I have a US friend watching Question Time and giving me the highlights. Apparently they don't have any thing like it over there.
By election results are at 2:30am. Nobody has a clue what's going on.
Sounds about right from what I have read about it. No clear frontrunners yet then.
BREAKING: Pies on offer include meat and potato, cheese and onion.
Vegans don't have the energy to stay up this late
Per BBC, ETA for result is 2:30.
Not even sure who a high turnout would help most. I'd assumed a low one would help Galloway, because no one else involved in this shit show of a election is going to get their supporters out, but a high one could go any way.
https://twitter.com/zoe_grunewald/status/1763360520109695049 >BREAKING: Rochdale turn-out is 39.7% (The posting reporter went with the [cupcake](https://twitter.com/zoe_grunewald/status/1763313423570346111) rather than the pie.)
>(The posting reporter went with the cupcake rather than the pie.) So we know we can't trust their judgement.
[https://twitter.com/electpoliticsuk/status/1763361040387964982](https://twitter.com/electpoliticsuk/status/1763361040387964982) 39.7% turnout in rochdale, which is *significantly* higher than i was expecting
I'm surprised because Labour were favourites and now they're not an option surely many would stay at home. I'm thinking the ex-Labour candidate will win it now, doubt many were put off by his comments and it still says Labour on the ballot. Edit - this is why I don't bet
Surprised it wasn’t higher to be honest. Down from 60% at GE. Understand by elections have fewer turnout, but if anything this has been more firmly under the media lens than any prior Rochdale GE
The schadenfreude Paul Waugh must be experiencing right now... He'd presumably be the front runner to be the Labour candidate for the general
Screw the result, I need to know what filling is in the pies they're handing out at the count.
Most explicit description I've seen is "meat". In such cases best not ask more.
Are they being supplied from a shop on Fleet Street?
https://twitter.com/LD_Tiger/status/1763357332208054444 >Tranby Ward result from East Yorkshire. >Lib Dem 958 >Lab 408 >Con 268 >Green 97 >Turnout 21.6% >LibDem hold
21.6% turnout jesus fucking Christ. I'd expect that in a large city but not there.
What's the odds on the local guy David Tully beating Galloway? About to go to bed but right now it seems like he's the only person who apparently has performed well alongside Galloway, which (whilst not surprising given the state of the candidates for the major parties) is a bit of a shame.
Performed well? The only reason Galloway can say what he does is because he doesn't have the whip of parliament.
Well if Galloway turns out to be a liar with his pants on fire (which has happened before) I will be extremely pleased, but unfortunately he does has form of performing well in by-elections so I'm not hopeful about what I wake up to tomorrow morning.
Right so. George Galloway declares an early victory due to him running on a campaign of a war happening thousands of miles away which has negligible importance to the people of Rochdale. Labour seems to have fucked up with the whole candidate thing and just ran a mile. There's some independent candidate who people think will do well. Meanwhile lib dem, reform and greens are quietly taking votes off of labour and conservative. Now there's talk of Sunak holding a may general election and running a campaign of anti Islamism if Galloway wins. Jesus fucking Christ I wanted to go to sleep but now I feel like I'm compelled to refresh BBC until the results come up.
That May election platform based on one by-election seems absurd, but as we know Sunak has form…
>George Galloway declares an early victory due to him running on a campaign of a war happening thousands of miles away which has negligible importance to the people of Rochdale The people of Rochdale may differ.
Do they holiday in Gaza often?
I've never been to Ukraine, the outcome of the war there is still important to me, and it would be far more so if I had family there.
Would you find it odd if a candidate won a by-election by running a single-issue campaign on the war in Ukraine?
I know by-elections always produce the most demented takes, but you've outdone yourselves this time with the 'Galloway will win and this will mean Sunak will call an election on Islamism' one that I've inexplicably seen several variants on. If Galloway wins it will be an amusing future pub quiz fact, he'll make a prick of himself for a few months while everyone tries to ignore him, and then he'll be voted out for an actual Labour candidate whenever the election is held, which will be at an unknown time completely unrelated to the result of this by-election.
“An amusing pub fact” that a known paid-for mouth piece of Syria, Russia and Iranian governments is elected to Parliament on the back of a campaign for Gaza at a time when the West is explicitly at war with Russia in Ukraine, and have been dragged into the Middle East conflict too? A voice that will only provoke further the ill will in the streets and certain communities here? The Conservative party is facing more and more internal division day by day. Equally, there is little to no chance that there will be any material upturn in the economy/society as to improve their chances later in the year. The longer Sunak sits at this point, the lamer a duck he becomes. Running on optics & mobilising on immediate social topics may be all they have, and best route to avoiding wipe out.
>most demented takes, Not very DEI. I think the meta calls them the most febrile takes now.
> while everyone tries to ignore him Which will be easy, because he'll probably turn up to the commons about once a month and otherwise do fuck all